President Trump: The media’s response, the tweets, and the brands on inauguration day
Originally published at linkedin.com on January 20, 2017.
After eight years under the Obama administration, the United States has undergone a big change in their system. Following a chaotic and tiring presidential election, the United States has found itself divided. While some cheer, others don’t celebrate, and the states have not known how to respond to this division. As Donald Trump participated in the inauguration, the media has been confused as how to react, the tweets have been controversial, and many brands have decided to remain neutral by being quiet.
Big Media Live Streamed Distraction
With live streams being more common and accessible than usual thanks to technology advancement and faster internet connections, they were the common ground for many conversations. However, the media utilized live steams in a more interesting way this time. For example, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert featured The Late Show’s ZENAUGURATION: an hour of calming yoga and guided meditation.” Perfect for those wanting to look the other way.
An outlet now known as having issues with the 45th President of the United States, Buzzfeed, was quick to create a Facebook live stream of a countdown timer for the next inauguration ceremony.
And most notoriously, American performance actor, Shia Labeouf, has launched a 4-year anti-Trump protest live stream at www.hewillnotdivide.us/.
The live stream reads:
“ Commencing at 9am on January 20, 2017, the day of the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States, the public is invited to deliver the words “HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US” into a camera mounted on a wall outside the Museum of the Moving Image, New York, repeating the phrase as many times, and for as long as they wish.”
It’s What’s Happening: The Twitter Scene
As usual, Twitter was the platform of choice to join the conversation. Many networks and channels offered live streams of the inauguration, but Twitter was the best for overall communication. Given that Twitter is a two-way street for communication, it best reflected what the people were saying, with the following being top of the list:
Click to learn more: #YoureHired [promoted], #ResistTrump, #StillWithHer,#DearCalifornians, #FridayFeeling, Donald the Unready, Mormon, Ashton Kutcher,#ProtectClimateData, 45th President of the U.S., and God Bless America.
Aside from the trends, Twitter has made some changes to the presidential Twitter handle, @POTUS. Everyone that followed @POTUS will still follow the account after the inauguration. Any tweets made during the Obama administration will be archived under @POTUS44, but you can stay updated to former President Barack Obama under his handle @barackobama. To learn more about the inauguration process for @POTUS, you can read the Mashable article here, by Kerry Flynn.
Meanwhile, Trump has been given the @POTUS handle, which has already been criticized for using a picture of Barack Obama’s inauguration from 2009 as a cover photo. As of the writing of this article, the picture has been replaced and Trump has not yet tweeted from his new account. Questions remain if he will use the new account or favor his personal profile, @realDonaldTrump.
The Donald has already tweeted from his personal profile as President.
Advertising on Inauguration Day
While many brands decided to stay neutral during the inauguration ceremony, Netflix chose to use it as a platform; after all, many people were going to be talking about it. Netflix took it as a perfect opportunity to drop an eerie House of Cards promo an hour before Trump’s oath.
The show has already been compared to 2016’s presidential election by The Guardian’s Brian Moyland:
“House of Cards has never felt like the real presidency: Frank Underwood [Kevin Spacey] is evil incarnate, bumping off junior Congressmen and pushing journalists in front of trains. But now that, in real life, we’re in the throes of such a bizarre presidential race, his machinations are starting to look almost viable. There are several parallels between Underwood’s re-election campaign and the 2016 campaigns of Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.”
Twitter also saw it as a great time to join the conversation — by having paid advertisements on Instagram. Twitter joined the photo-sharing app two days before the inauguration, with an understanding of all the talk that would be produced by the Donald’s inauguration. Twitter pushed their live stream of the inauguration in their posts — or as can be seen by their link in their biography section of their profile.
It seems for now that Twitter will keep the account for future events, while maintaining their current marketing campaign of significant images with their logo and a hashtag.
Under The Trump Presidency
Today, the media chose to comfort: feel free to look away, do not give Trump any more ratings. The tweets showed how divided we still are as a country. And some brands chose to make moves around the day.
What are your thoughts on your news feed today?
Got any thoughts to add? Tweet me @juliangumbo or comment below!
Julian Gamboa is a UC Berkeley graduate with a focus on marketing. Julian was selected as a LinkedIn Top Voice for Marketing and #Social Media (2017) and a Course Instructor of the marketing and digital publishing course Digital Marketing Today at the Haas School of Business. He is also the founder of Digiviewpoint, a millennial publishing account.
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